On Mar 19, 10:09 pm, "
porky_pig...@my-deja.com" <porky_pig...@my-
Didnt you infringe a copyright in your nickname?
I ll post it here.
It is a rather direct selection mechanism. When individuals get dirty,
their best strategy is to isolate themselves from the group. If being
dirty they try to copulate, they risk aggressive behaviour and death
(where a lession is more important than being dirty). Aggressive
behaviour against dirt is a socially desirable behaviour expressed by
the individual. A social group that did NOT go aggressive against the
dirty individual contracted diseases and reduced its survivability,
were the dirty indvidual risks extinction even if copulating
successfully _if_ the group goes extinct due to disease, while the
individuals who showed aggressivity remained (possibly) healthy and
had better chances of propagating their genes to the next generation
to form a clean group. So aggressive behaviour against nearby dirty
individuals has a good selective chance of being incorporated in
behaviour.
But if instead the dirty individual chooses to remain aloof
(isolated), it increases its survivability chances and that of its
genes of propagating if it waits to get clean before approaching the
group or another individual. It will have better chances to propagate
its genes and create more offspring by isolating, cleaning then
approaching, than by forcing copulation while dirty. This mechanism
points in HUMANS to the reason why individuals bathe individually,
while communal water sharing is not for cleaning up but for
entertainment. The entertainment value comes from implicitly
expressing the fact that each one is already clean, therefore can
approach the group.
Note that the Hindi festival of washing en masse in the Ganges is an
expression of this mechanism, but not along its entertainment value
but around the expression of cleanliness! In such festival individuals
DO bathe communally in a river and that is the meaning and _purpose_
of the festival. It is understandable since it is next to impossible
to assess by sight if their skin is actually clean or not, so mass
participation in a festival delivers the message of **already clean**
visibly and verifiably.
Danilo J Bonsignore